Vehicles generally include a lock pillar mounted striker bolt engageable by a door mounted latch bolt to maintain the door in closed position. Since the striker bolt must be adjustable relative to the lock pillar to accommodate production tolerances, the bolt anchor plate on the inside wall of the lock pillar must be adjustably mounted. Access to such wall for mounting of the anchor plate is limited during vehicle assembly. Mounting of the anchor plate when access is complete prior to body assembly is not practical as paint may later clog the threaded apertures during painting operations. Therefore, it is desirable that such mounting be simple and not require tool access.
Adjustable lock striker anchor plates are known in the prior art. Ackermans U.S. Pat. No. 2,681,245 shows a floating reinforcement plate attached to the vehicle lock pillar by peened rivets and spring tensioners. This requires several fasteners, which must be assembled with full access to the inside wall of the lock pillar.
Another adjustable anchor plate includes a retainer bracket welded to the inside wall of the lock pillar. A series of bendable tabs on the retainer bracket are bent over the anchor plate to adjustably retain the plate. The mounting of the anchor plate into the retention bracket requires accessibility for a tool such as a hammer in order to bend over the tabs.